The opening of China Entertainment Group gave Jay Chou a head-on confrontation

Chapter 891 I can get a new girlfriend again.
As we all know, musicians generally have a source of inspiration when writing songs—

This person could be yourself, a news story, a friend or family member, or even just a novel, a book, a song, a movie, or even a dream—any of these are possible.

If Zhou Yi hadn't experienced that shooting incident that nearly scared her to death, Cheng Hao wouldn't have had these unnecessary worries.

But that's exactly what he experienced.

Against this backdrop, the lyrics Zhou Yi wrote alone in his study were quite telling, making it hard for Cheng Hao not to have many thoughts—

"If I die young one day, please don't be sad for me, because I have lived my life to the fullest."

This is the core essence she extracted.

She also subtly probed Qian Jiang, but even he didn't know that Zhou Yi was already writing a new English song for next year.

Combined with Zhou Yi's recent experience, it's no wonder she was panicking.

"Actually..."

Zhou Yi, who wanted to tease her a bit more to stop her from overthinking, looked into her eyes and swallowed back the teasing words that were already on the tip of his tongue: "The reason this song was written, besides my own experience, is also because I wanted to use it as a gimmick for promotion in Europe and America next year. That's all."

"If I Die Young" is a country-style healing song by Perry.

Although some of the lyrics were written from a female perspective, they were not difficult to revise.

Putting that issue aside, the song's theme, ideas, and magnanimous attitude towards death resonate perfectly with Zhou Yi's experience after being shot.

After all, if Zhou Yi had really died at that time, it would have truly been a tragic untimely death.

Beyond that, this song is actually quite philosophical in essence. Now, sung by Zhou Yi, someone who has truly walked through the gates of hell, both the background and the emotions contained in the melody and lyrics are enough to resonate with and move people.

The philosophical insights and clear-headed understanding gained from surviving a life-or-death crisis are enough to make him the most politically correct person in the Western music scene starting next year. In this song, he even openly sang about his funeral arrangements should he really die young.

Death is the ultimate limit for humanity, regardless of whether you are a prodigy or an ordinary person. For this reason, it is forever the most relatable yet most difficult emotion to write about in the world, bar none.

"Using yourself as a gimmick, you really are..."

Cheng Hao felt both angry and amused. She could feel the man's sincerity from the bottom of his heart, so much so that she didn't know how to evaluate him for a while.

"I risked my life to gain this popularity. Besides, I'm doing this to earn money for our future children's milk powder."

In an instant, Zhou Yi switched back to his unserious self, put his arm around the woman's waist, looked at her upper body sitting on his lap, and said with a hint of emotion, "I hope they will understand my good intentions in the future."

It’s all for the children!

Cheng Hao rolled her eyes at him: "If he's short of money, he can go to his dad's aunties and play the victim to get some pocket money. That won't be a problem."

Zhouyi: "..."

It was determined that it still needed to be dealt with.

"Go wash up and go to bed, no matter how high your critical hit rate is, it's useless..."

Seeing the change in the man's eyes, Cheng Hao smiled, then quietly pressed her breasts against his chest, leaned down to whisper in his ear and boasted, "I can reply faster than you."

Depend on!
chisel!
We still have to chisel it hard!
How can you not be able to tell the difference between the two kings? You have to keep digging until she kneels down and begs for mercy!
"what!"

Taipei.

Sun Yanzi, who came to participate in the program and endorsement activities, was probably exhausted since the release of her new album. She was fast asleep in her hotel room, hugging her pillow, until her assistant forcibly woke her up early in the morning.

The sharp cracking sound, the messy hair, and the tired expression made him look utterly listless.

"Yanzi, get up quickly, wash up and we're leaving."

Sun Yanzi, who was being pulled up to brush her teeth and wash her face, was completely numb.

If it were her debut year, she might have gotten used to this intensity, but over the years, releasing one album a year has meant she spends a significant amount of time resting. Naturally, the promotional period before and after each album release is incredibly painful for her.

She missed Cheng Hao's dumplings, the fish her uncle caught, the dishes her aunt cooked, and the big house where Zhou Yi lived, a place where she felt free and at ease.

When Sun Yanzi was being dragged out of the hotel by her team, she saw Jay Chou in the hotel lounge, who was also making the most of every spare moment to catch up on sleep.

Taiwan is so small that Jay Chou, who just released an album in November, often runs into Sun Yanzi while promoting it.

After all, everyone here is very popular, and the shows and events they need to participate in are limited to a few on this island—except for endorsements.

"Yanzi, please tell Ayi I thank him for me."

Upon seeing Sun Yanzi, Jay Chou, who had been drowsy, immediately perked up: "I'll treat him to dinner when I go to Beijing."

Sun Yanzi looked bewildered: "Huh? What happened?"

Why are you thanking me?
"When Yi was filming the music video, he was surrounded by reporters asking questions. I helped him clarify the plagiarism rumors and stopped the plagiarism storm from escalating." Knowing that his boss had been working non-stop these past few days and was too tired to keep up with the news, the assistant recounted the story after getting into the car.

"Beethoven in November" can be said to be the album in which Jay Chou was most criticized for having lost his creative spark since his debut, even more so than Jay Chou's "Hush" last year.

Not only was the title track "Moonlight Sonata" (replacing "Nocturne") criticized for being too popular, but other songs on the album, such as "Black Sweater," "Maple," "All the Way North," "Drifting," "Green Silk Rain" (replacing "Hair Like Snow"), and "Coral Sea" featuring newcomers, were also heavily criticized.

Especially "All the Way North" and "Drifting," which were the theme songs and insert songs for the movie "Initial D" in which he starred, were moved into the album to make up the numbers—and were criticized for being insincere.

"Surrounded by Enemies" almost ruined Jay Chou's reputation as a talented man.

After all, the target of the criticism was the paparazzi, and the reporters who seized the opportunity went all out.

If it weren't for Zhou Yi, this heavyweight music emperor, simply opening a small sunflower classroom to give a public lesson, the criticism would probably have continued to grow.

At the same time, comments about the album "Beethoven in November" being "perfunctory," "boring," and "just filling space" were rampant—for the first time, Jay Chou, who is considered the number one person after the I Ching, was collectively criticized by Taiwanese media for drifting further and further away from the I Ching.

"It's clear that Jaylen can't juggle both film and music careers simultaneously. If he wants to surpass Zhou Yi, I think he should focus on film. The talent he showed as the lead in 'Initial D' can help him..."

Because of the presence of a powerful figure above everyone else, Jay Chou, as a representative of the Taiwanese music scene, actually faced greater public pressure than Zhou Yi had anticipated—in contrast, the mainland media treated this Taiwanese superstar much better…

After all, in terms of popularity, this album is actually not bad—the problem lies in the fact that the songs are mostly superficially popular. The addition of "All the Way North" and "Drifting" directly undermines the concept of the entire album, and they were simply added for the sake of generating buzz.

After all, Initial D was indeed a hit.

"Although I know how important the concept of a music album is for a recording artist, the Taiwanese media are being far too rude to him. Even the Hong Kong media know to hype things up and protect Hong Kong artists."

Qian Jiang, who had brought information from Taiwan, ate a steamed bun and exclaimed in amazement.

"How do I put it? What's the difference between a good person doing a bad thing and a bad person doing a good thing?"

Zhou Yi, who had put down his pen and paper, glanced at the newspaper and gave a somewhat inappropriate example: "If Jay Chou hadn't been known for his albums as a whole since his debut, and had just filled in songs like most Hong Kong singers, then he wouldn't be criticized for doing so."

"But he has always focused on this aspect in his albums since his debut. Now he has broken the image and rules he set for himself when he debuted. That means he has completely compromised with reality. In the eyes of the Taiwanese media, he has completely lost his ambition."

From the perspective of those who came after, the album "November's Chopin" can be said to be the real watershed moment in Jay Chou's music career, or rather, it was when he and his team realized the change in market trends and took the initiative to step down from the pioneering position of a leader, no longer striving for progress.

It's hard to say whether it's right or wrong, after all, the market situation is what it is.

Wang Lihong and Tao Zhe, who had not yet realized this, gradually declined after 06—by the time they realized it, it was too late.

Jay Chou, who adapted to market changes, and rising star Lin Junjie firmly secured their positions at the top of the Chinese music market. Tao Zhe faded into obscurity early on, while Wang Lihong began to fall into the lowest point of his career 10 years later.

After leaving Sony in 11, he became completely washed up. Even when he held a concert, the organizers would rather break the contract and pay compensation than continue to hold concerts for him.

It's a complete disaster. This is the market's choice.

However, this is unacceptable to the Taiwanese music scene, which prides itself on being a leader in Chinese music. The most direct result is that Jay Chou's name will not be nominated for any awards at next year's Golden Melody Awards—yes, Jay Chou himself did not receive a single nomination at the 06 Golden Melody Awards.

The only two nominations for the entire album "November's Chopin" were for Best Lyricist and Best Arranger, which had nothing to do with Jay Chou, and he hasn't won either of them yet.

Correspondingly, this situation is welcomed by people in mainland China.

Despite the lukewarm reception of "November Chopin" in Taiwan, various official and unofficial award ceremonies in mainland China have begun to frequently award it prizes, seemingly adopting a "It doesn't matter if they don't value you, we do" attitude.

State media also began to gradually build momentum for him.

It was around this time that Jay Chou began to shift towards becoming what is known as "CCTV's favorite son"—in reality, there's no such thing as a favorite son; everyone knows perfectly well that they just need a figurehead.

Of course, Jay Chou's unparalleled strength at his peak was also the foundation for him to become the flag bearer needed in mainland China; otherwise, he wouldn't have been chosen.

"There's no need to curse like that."

Qian Jiang clearly doesn't understand the thought process of those musicians. In his view, as long as the music sells well, that's all that matters; if it doesn't sell well, everything else is nonsense.

If you truly have the ability to sell well and be both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, then you're an invincible father.

"Well, if we only look at how well it sells, the final result will not be satisfactory." Zhou Yi sighed as he pushed the finished notebook in front of Qian Jiang and put his hands behind his head with his fingers interlaced.

This is actually something that cannot be divided.

If good sales were everything, then those later hit songs wouldn't have been despised, and singers from the early 2000s wouldn't have been repeatedly revived by netizens through archaeological digging.

It's pure nonsense to expect a large segment of the lower-tier market's core audience to listen to songs like Jay Chou's "Double Blades," Wang Leehom's "Deep in the Bamboo Forest," or Tao Zhe's "Random Miscellany." But the pop music audience isn't static—

Many children who grew up in families in lower-tier cities listened to the so-called catchy ringtones, internet hits, and TikTok hits with their parents when they were young. Some of them will get tired of these hit songs when they grow up and pursue more complex, meaningful, and profound pop music.

This is why many songs by singer-songwriters from the early 2000s suddenly become popular again for no apparent reason. It's because these people suddenly realized that they didn't need to look for more popular music in foreign music scenes. In fact, Chinese music had already been doing that, but it just didn't have a large audience and wasn't popular before.

The most typical examples are Jay Chou's Dark Trilogy, Wang Lihong's "Love Wrong", Lin Junjie's "Killer", Tao Zhe's "Airport Heart Fluttering", etc. These songs were ignored when they were released in mainland China, but they were discovered and became popular again.

If you only make highbrow, niche musical songs, it's hard to say you can achieve both critical and commercial success, and you might even have trouble making a living...

But if you only make so-called "lower-brow" hits, then a significant portion of the audience who grew up listening to music will become obsessed with advanced Western music after being exposed to more complex genres, especially in the internet age, since Chinese music itself started relatively late.

Unfortunately, in the cultural and entertainment field, movies, music, and books are precisely the three driving forces of ideological output.

This incident is also documented in the mobile internet era—a Cuban singer who opposed Cuba ended up being betrayed by a blonde nautilus.

Whether in the Western or Eastern music scene, the expansion into lower-tier markets under the influence of the internet age is a double-edged sword for the music industry. It can broaden the market audience, revitalize the industry, increase the number of practitioners, and provide more people with a livelihood, but it can also easily backfire and be criticized by the public.

There is no fixed answer to these things. No one can manage them or provide a standard answer. It is only through musicians constantly exploring and creating music, and listeners constantly listening to songs to cross-verify whether they are right or wrong. It is a muddled mess that is impossible to explain no matter how you look at it.

Not to mention the large number of ignorant and superior individuals who use so-called musicality to aesthetically bully singers and listeners. They don't listen to the songs or don't understand them, yet they follow the trend, but they still want to show off their superiority—

When mixed with other substances, the water becomes even more murky.

Because it is so difficult, anyone who can grasp the critical point between art and commerce and encompass both, whether in the Eastern or Western music scene, will inevitably become a universally acclaimed superstar, without exception.

"What a mess..."

Qian Jiang sighed, and when his gaze fell on the notebook, he paused for a moment, then exclaimed, "You're going to shoot another long music video?"

The title page of the drama version of "Unfortunately, If Only" is shown above.

"There's still plenty of time, and it would be a shame not to film the storyline for this music video."

The story-driven music video for "Unfortunately, If Only" has a rather melodramatic plot, but it undoubtedly adds a lot to the song – after meeting Wang Likun, he also brought out this long-dormant idea again.

The original female lead in the music video for this song, Yang Ying, hasn't finished her makeover yet, but Wang Likun's natural makeup looks surprisingly good, so replacing her wouldn't be a problem.

"Are you planning to write another fairy tale that will make people cry their hearts out?" Qian Jiang joked, looking at the densely packed words on the paper.

Instead of setting the story at Peking University like he did with "You Are the Apple of My Eye," Zhou Yi chose to set it at Wang Likun's alma mater, the Beijing Dance Academy.

As an art school, it's perfectly reasonable for Beijing Dance Academy to have an auditorium, a piano, and art teachers who work year-round.

The rest of the plot is pretty much the same.

The male lead, played by Zhou Yi, did not graduate from the Beijing Dance Academy. So when he returned to his alma mater with his good friend who did graduate from the academy, he played the piano in the auditorium while drunk. He was discovered by the female lead, Wang Likun, who heard the sound. Her first reaction was to hide.

In the end, he still couldn't hide. So Zhou Yi lied and said that he was also a graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy and a classmate of his good friend. He said that he came back this time just to reminisce about the past—his good friend from the Beijing Dance Academy was mistaken for the one playing the piano.

It was at this time that the innocent man played by Zhou Yi fell in love with the female lead, Wang Likun, at first sight, but hesitated to confess his feelings.

Wang Likun's good friend, who graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy, was unaware of this. He also fell in love with Wang Likun and wanted to pursue her. Wang Likun thought he was the one who played the piano in the auditorium at the beginning, so she tried to get to know him. The two naturally got together.

Unfortunately, my best friend turned out to be a jerk.

After talking with Wang Likun, her good friend met a bar girl while drinking with Zhou Yi and hooked up with her. At this time, Wang Likun had a vague feeling that the person who played the piano that night might be Zhou Yi, so she tried to subtly test him, but Zhou Yi avoided her questions.

After that, Zhou Yi, a close friend from the Beijing Dance Academy, was two-timing him and asked Zhou Yi to keep it a secret. He also asked Zhou Yi to help cover for him, such as pretending to be a friend of the bar girl, so that they could appear together openly.

At first, Zhou Yi silently agreed, but in the end he couldn't bear it any longer and chose to confront his good brother. The two fought and broke off their friendship.

Wang Likun, who already knew that Zhou Yi liked her, returned to the music room after the two fought. She saw Zhou Yi playing the piano and asked him again if it was really him who played the piano that night—the subtext being whether he liked her or not.

Unfortunately, Zhou Yi, believing they hadn't broken up yet and not wanting to steal someone else's girlfriend, coupled with his own deep-seated inferiority complex, denied it once again.

Until the female lead left.

Misconceptions, misguided relationships —

The male lead, played by Zhou Yi, is timid and doesn't dare to confess his feelings to Wang Likun. The female lead, played by Wang Likun, is also tight-lipped and only knows how to interrogate him by asking, "Is it you playing the piano?" As a result, the two miss each other.

In reality, many people are too afraid to confess their feelings, leading to missed opportunities, hence the title "Unfortunately, There Are No Ifs"—

"If only I had said what I needed to say properly that day..."

A classic love story filled with misunderstandings and heartache.

In the mobile internet era, Zhou Yi would only curse such a plot as idiot, but this is 2005, a time when the general public is hopelessly addicted to love-hate relationships and tragic endings.

"Why did you portray yourself as an innocent man again? Shouldn't you be playing that two-timing scumbag from the Beijing Dance Academy?"

Qianjiang couldn't hold back any longer.

You tend to act out what you lack most, don't you? The scumbag character you played in the later part of "Love Me or Him" ​​is your comfort zone!

"Get lost."

Zhou Yi shook his leg and laughed, "Besides, it's not like I haven't played a scumbag before. What's wrong with trying something different this time? Just remember to find someone who looks like a scumbag to play a supporting role."

"This isn't a big problem. There's a newcomer at TVB in Hong Kong named Wong Chung Chak. He's quite a womanizer in real life, and he's just playing himself."

Qian Jiang, who started his career in Hong Kong, immediately found a supporting role for Zhou Yi: "If this song's music video becomes popular, I feel like the pirated 'Warner Love Story' series can help you get a new girlfriend."

Zhouyi: "..."

(End of this chapter)